Nulling interferometry in space does not require a rotating telescope arrays

Abstract

Space borne nulling interferometry in the mid-infrared waveband is one of the most promising techniques for characterizing the atmospheres of extra-solar planets orbiting in the habitable zone of their parent star, and possibly discovering life markers. One of its most difficult challenges is the control of free-flying telescope spacecrafts moving around a central combiner in order to modulating the planet signal, within accuracy better than one micrometer at least. Moreover, the whole array must be reconfigured regularly in order to observe different celestial targets, thus increasing the risk of loosing one or more spacecrafts and aborting the mission before its normal end. In this paper is described a simplified optical configuration where the telescopes do not need to be rotated, and the number of necessary array reconfigurations is minimized. It allows efficient modulation of the planet signal, only making use of rotating prisms or mirrors located into the central combiner. In this paper the general principle of a nulling interferometer with a fixed telescope array is explained. Mathematical relations are established in order to determining the planet modulation signal. Numerical simulations are carried out for three different arrangements of the collecting telescopes. They confirm that nulling interferometry in space does not require a rotating telescope array.